March 14, 2010
Shutter Island and Green Zone
When the poll for this week’s film finished on Friday I was happy to see that the film I was hoping you would all pick came out on top. With 50% of the vote Shutter Island was the film I was going to see. However, not far behind was Green Zone so when Josh Halliday asked if he could write a guest blog reviewing this film I knew it was a good idea.
Shutter Island:
Shutter Island is not anything like I expected it would be, it’s not a one of those films you can love or hate but it’s definitely a film that will get you thinking. With so many twists and turns along the way, some people could say it was hard to follow.
As the film begins we are took to a boat where Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Dicaprio) meets his new partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) for the case he is about to work on. From the pair stepping onto the Island there is a feeling of something not being right and Teddy is determined to get to the bottom of the case involving missing ‘patient’ Rachel Solando. However, it seems that Teddy is also here to investigate something other than the case.
As the pair start to investigate they begin to realise the mess they’ve stumbled into. No-one will talk to them about missing patient Rachel- not the staff, patients and certainly not Doctor Crawley (Ben Kingsley) and as the case evolves, Teddy realises that something evil is going on on the island.
Teddy is now at breaking point and starts to hallucinate his wife (Rachel Williams) after taking ‘aspirin’ for a headache from the Doctor and his past experiences of WW2 begin to haunt him. I think that this is the point in the film where it would have lost quite a few people who were watching as it does tend to jump from reality to hallucination, which can be quite confusing.
Both Dicaprio and Ruffalo play excellent parts and their acting is outstanding, especially in the darker scenes of the film. I don’t think either actor would have realised how deep this film was going to be or how challenging the multi layer scenes would be until they began shooting.
I would definitely need to see this film again to try and understand certain parts of it which I’m still confused about now. Some of the questions which I had weren’t answered throughout the film and I think different people would have took different parts of the film in different ways. I wasn’t too sure about the ending which was kind of left to your imagination, which I think again would have confused a lot of people. When the film finished, everybody in the cinema sat in silence and I heard a man behind me say ‘ I feel like I’ve watched 4 films in one’. I think this confusion was the general feeling of everyone who left the cinema.
Overall the film was excellent, the acting was faultless and the scenery and camera work were superb, however I do think if you want to see a film where you don’t need to concentrate this is definitely not it!
Green Zone:
Green Zone is everything you would expect from a Greengrass/Damon shaky cam motion picture, set in the heart of bomb-ravaged Baghdad against a backdrop of contentious evidence in support of war.
It’s 2003 and, in the opening scenes, we’re led through the streets of Iraq’s capital, impoverished looters stalling Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller’s ( Matt Damon) ill-fated search for Saddam Hussein’s alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction.
From the outset, Miller’s sense of ‘something’s not quite right’ is pervasive. Miller is the man in charge of turning the dodgy ‘intel’ being passed down from anonymous Generals and secret meetings into Weapons of Mass Destruction-except the ‘intelligence’ is at odds with what is on the ground.
CIA boss Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) is on the same page as Miller and the pair soon find themselves at odds with the rest of the US Army, the mavericks treading their own path in the hunt for WMD.
Green Zone is ultimately the full-tilt adrenaline rush underpinned by smart storytelling that Greengrass intends it to be. Matt Damon is more than convincing as Chief Warrant Officer and you would never know the soldier extras were real serving soldiers. It is a heavily politicised picture- though largely substantiated by verifiable fact- and one released on the doorstep of Sir John Chilcott’s Iraq Inquiry.
It will be interesting to see if Green Zone will ride the Box Office wave of Iraq-based Oscar winner The Hurt Locker, or whether the opaque run-up to war and its subsequent shooing under the carpet will be enough to keep the punters away.
By guest blogger Josh Halliday
March 10, 2010
Trailer Tuesday
This Friday sees four new releases at the cinema: Shutter Island, Green Zone, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. These are the four releases which you can choose from for me to review:
Shutter Island:
This film is a psychological horror-thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Williams. The film is about U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) who is assigned to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a patient from Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. However, as the investigation unfolds, we get to know why Teddy was so keen to work on the Shutter Island case, and why when a hurricane cuts off all communication with the mainland and more dangerous criminals escape, Teddy begins to fear for his own sanity.
Green Zone:
Green Zone is action war film based on the 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan and Jason Issacs. The film is about a Chief Warrant Office (Matt Damon) who is sent to Baghdad in 2003 to find weapons of mass destruction which are thought to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Not long into their mission, the Officer and his men stumble upon an elaborate cover-up. They then must hunt through faulty intelligence to find answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war, as they discover that the best weapon of all is the truth.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a film adapted from the bestselling novel by Stieg Larsson. The film is a tense thriller that will keep the audience guessing till the end. Michael Nyqvist starts alongside Noomi Rapace, Peter Haber and Lena Endre. The film sees Harriet Vanger mysteriously disappear from a secluded island owned by the powerful Vanger family. Forty years later, journalist Mikael Blomqvist is contacted by Harriet’s uncle to investigate what really happened. Teaming up with a mysterious biker girl and computer hacker Mikael uncovers the sinister past of the Vanger family – and how finds out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale:
Based on a true story, Hachi: A Dog’s Story stars Richard Gere, Joan Allen, Sarah Roamer and Jason Alexnader. Gere stars as Parker Wilson, a distinguished professor who finds Hachi – a stray Akita puppy – while on his way home from work. Before long Hachi attaches himself to the family and becomes Parker’s loyal companion. As the bond between man and dog grows, their relationship inspires the hearts of an enitre town.
The film with the most votes on Friday at 17:00 will be the film I review this week.
March 8, 2010
The Hurt Locker
The small independent war drama The Hurt Locker won six awards out the nine it was nominated for at last nights Oscar Awards including Best Picture, Directing and Writing amongst others. Avatar won awards for Visual Effects, Art Direction and Cinematography. I’m glad to see a small film finally get the recognition it deserves.
As I predicted Sandra Bullock won an award for Best Actress in her leading role in The Blind Side, however Jeff Bridges beat Colin Firth to the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. I do think this award was well deserved though, especially since this was his fifth time of being nomiated for an award!
Christopher Waltz won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his part in Inglorious Basterds with Mo’Nique winning best Actress in a Supporting Role for her part in Push, a novel wrote by Sapphire.
Unfortunately, not one British Actor or Actress was given an award for their roles in the film world, but as they say the show must go on and there’s always next year to look forward to!
March 6, 2010
Will the underdog scoop up at the Oscars?
Tomorrow sees Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin host the 82nd Oscar Awards. It’s no surprise to see that the most nominated films this year are Avatar and The Hurt Locker with an outstanding 9 nominations each. Both films are nominated for best picture alongside the likes of District 9, Inglorious Basterds and Up.
I’m excited to see whether Avatar scoops up like the critics expect or if The Hurt Locker comes out on top after being the underdog in the film world. Sandra Bullock is expected to win for her leading role in The Blind Side while bringing it home for Britain is Actor Colin Firth, who is tipped to win for his leading role in A Single Man.
Coverage of the awards will be shown on in the UK on Sky One from 11:30pm on Sunday night and Sky Movies from 1:00am on Monday morning.
March 5, 2010
3D Wonderland
Today saw the release of the long awaited Alice and Wonderland in 3D. This film tells the story of Alice as a 19-year old girl who accidentally returns to Underland 13 years after her first visit. In the film she is told she is the only one who can fight the JabberWock, a dragon controlled by the Red Queen.
I was one of many girls who from an early age adored this fairytale and the idea of a fantasy world with talking rabbits, appearing cats and mad hatters. So when I heard Burton was directing this new film of Alice revisiting ‘Underland’ it was safe to say I was excited at least.
After paying £8.60 to get in to see the film, and being second row from the front it was clear to see I wasn’t the only one who was excited to see Alice and friends again. The film began and I was quickly transported back to my childhood and into a fantasy world.
Depp played an outstanding part as the Mad Hatter, however at times I found it very difficult to understand what he was saying, both in his American and Scottish accent. Was this a scripted part of his ‘mad’ acting? There were a few instances throughout the film where he whispered a vital part of the story to Alice and I didn’t have a clue what was going on.
The film itself was phenomonal, the 3D effects and animations were incredible and Burton has certainly succeeded in making the film feel more like a story than a series of events about a wandering girl. However, I do wonder whether the film would succeed as much as its speculated too without these technological advances?
I was slightly disappointed that part of the fairtytale world I’d once known had been turned into a story of a girl who was born to slay a dragon to save her friends. However, even with this dragon slaying plot, I was still transported to and from the fantasy world I used to know as Wonderland.
February 18, 2010
Just another Film Review Blog?
When Philip said we had to write a blog for our MAC 114 module, panic struck. My first thought was what on earth can i write about that will interest people?What would make people want to come online and read what I’d ‘blogged’?
But the more we discussed what people wrote in blogs, the more I realised there was nothing to worry about.Basically anything could be wrote in a blog.
I knew from the offset that I wanted my blog to be original and opinionated but I also knew that for my blog to have any readers it needed to be of some interest to them.
One of my ideas for this blog is to review films that are being released at the cinema in the following ten weeks. I know what you’re all thinking… well surely we can find film reviews anywhere? Why would I come to your blog to find out about a film? Well yeah, I take your point on board, but the difference with this film reviewing blog is that you will choose what film I review.
After thinking about this idea, I decided to look at other film reviewing blogs in order to help me make a concrete plan of how my blog was going to pan out. I found the following film reviews blogs using Google:
I’d like to know what you all think about this idea before I run with it and bore you all about the latest releases.
